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When acoustic sequences are not perceptual sequences: the global perception of auditory patterns.

Warren, Bashford, and Gardner (1990) found that when sequences consisting of 10 40-msec steady-state vowels were presented in recycled format, minimal changes in order (interchanging the position of two adjacent phonemes) produced easily recognizable differences in verbal organization, even though the vowel durations were well below the threshold for identification of order. The present study was designed to determine if this ability to discriminate between different arrangements of components is limited to speech sounds subject to verbal organization, or if it reflects a more general auditory ability. In the first experiment, 10 40-msec sinusoidal tones were substituted for the vowels; it was found that the easy discrimination of minimal changes in order is not limited to speech sounds. A second experiment substituted 10 40-msec frozen noise segments for the vowels. The succession of noise segments formed a 400-msec frozen noise pattern that cannot be considered as a sequence of individual sounds, as can the succession of vowels or tones. Nevertheless, listeners again could discriminate between patterns differing only in the order of two adjacent 40-msec segments. These results, together with other evidence, indicate that it is not necessary for acoustic sequences of brief items (such as phonemes and tones) to be processed as perceptual sequences (that is, as a succession of discrete identifiable sounds) for different arrangements to be discriminated. Instead, component acoustic elements form distinctive "temporal compounds," which permit listeners to distinguish between different arrangements of portions of an acoustic pattern without the need for segmentation into an ordered series of component items.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Attention↗

Neural correlates of sensory and decision processes in auditory object identification.

Physiological studies of auditory perception have not yet clearly distinguished sensory from decision processes. In this experiment, human participants identified speech sounds masked by varying levels of noise while blood oxygenation signals in the brain were recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Accuracy and response time were used to characterize the behavior of sensory and decision components of this perceptual system. Oxygenation signals in a cortical subregion just anterior and lateral to primary auditory cortex predicted accuracy of sound identification, whereas signals in an inferior frontal region predicted response time. Our findings provide neurophysiological evidence for a functional distinction between sensory and decision mechanisms underlying auditory object identification. The present results also indicate a link between inferior frontal lobe activation and response-selection processes during auditory perception tasks.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Auditory detection and perception in normal man and in patients with adrenal cortical insufficiency: effect of adrenal cortical steroids.

Auditory detection thresholds for sinusoidal tones and various tests of auditory perception were determined in 12 patients with adrenal cortical insufficiency (seven with Addison's disease and five with panhypopituitarism) and compared to those in normal volunteers. In adrenal cortical insufficiency auditory detection sensitivity was significantly more acute than normal, and judgments of loudness and of the contralateral threshold shift were made at levels more than 20 db below those of normal subjects. Thus both the lower and the upper limits of the dynamic auditory range are significantly decreased in these patients. Speech discrimination ability of the patients was significantly impaired as was their difference limens, their alternate binaural loudness balances, and their ability to localize tones in space. Treatment of the patients with deoxycorticosterone acetate decreased serum potassium concentration, raised serum sodium concentration, and produced gains in body weight but did not alter auditory detection or perception. Treatment with prednisolone or with maintenance doses of carbohydrate-active steroids returned auditory detection and perception to normal in every patient tested. The inability of the untreated patients to perform the various auditory perception tasks indicates that they have a defect in their ability to integrate incoming sensory stimuli. This defect may be related to the alteration in the timing of transmission of neural impulses along axons and across synapses which occurs in these patients when their carbohydrate-active steroid is removed. This decreased integrative capacity occurs at the same time that they are able to detect many types of sensory stimuli significantly better than normal subjects. This interrelationship between increased detection sensitivity and decreased perceptual ability is dependent upon the absence of carbohydrate-active steroids, for when these steroids are replaced both detection sensitivity and perceptual ability revert to normal.

Addison Disease↗

[Dysphatic development: clinical importance and neurological background].

The timely treatment of children with developmental dysphasia is important in the prevention of subsequent learning and behaviour disorders. The pathophysiology of developmental dysphasia is complex and depends on age. In the preverbal and early verbal phase the severity of the clinical picture is determined by accompanying motor function pathology (simple motor function, dysarthria, general and oral dyspraxia) and by receptive pathology (hearing, and auditory perception). In the verbal period linguistic problems become more prominent (syntax, morphology, semantics and verbal memory), these problems might be accompanied by oral motor symptoms. The different developmental language syndromes become more apparent with time. After kindergarten age the oral motor and perceptual problems diminish, but the language disorders, that influence communication and scholastic learning, remain. In a small number of children without oral motor, perceptual and memory problems, there exists a 'bare or nuclear syndrome', a so called 'pure dysphasia', without other neurological signs. In these children there is perhaps a genetically determined developmental disorder on a restricted neuronal level (no brain damage!). In more than half of the patients this syndrome is accompanied by other neurological signs, predominantly pointing to the left cerebral hemisphere. Furthermore there can be signs from the right cerebral hemisphere, the corpus callosum and from the afferent fibers systems for auditory perception. The nature and causes of these disorders are extremely variable, so that one cannot speak of the neural substrate or the pathogenesis. The diagnosis and the treatment can optimally only be performed by an experienced team, the expertise of which has to penetrate into the school education system.

Aphasia↗

Auditory motion perception activates visual motion areas in early blind subjects.

We have previously shown that some visual motion areas can be specifically recruited by auditory motion processing in blindfolded sighted subjects [Poirier, C., Collignon, O., De Volder, A.G., Renier, L., Vanlierde, A., Tranduy, D., Scheiber, C., 2005. Specific activation of V5 brain area by auditory motion processing: an fMRI study. Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res. 25, 650-658]. The present fMRI study investigated whether auditory motion processing may recruit the same brain areas in early blind subjects. The task consisted of simultaneously determining both the nature of a sound stimulus (pure tone or complex sound) and the presence or absence of its movement. When a movement was present, blind subjects had to identify its direction. Auditory motion processing, as compared to static sound processing, activated the brain network of auditory and visual motion processing classically observed in sighted subjects. Accordingly, brain areas previously considered as specific to visual motion processing could be specifically recruited in blind people by motion stimuli presented through the auditory modality. This indicates that the occipital cortex of blind people could be organized in a modular way, as in sighted people. The similarity of these results with those we previously observed in sighted subjects suggests that occipital recruitment in blind people could be mediated by the same anatomical connections as in sighted subjects.

Adolescent↗

Auditory environmental cells and visual fixation effect in area 8B of macaque monkey.

Area 8B may be treated as part of either the prefrontal cortex or the premotor cortex. Previous investigations showed an involvement of area 8B in both eye and ear motor control and in auditory perception. In this report, we studied 139 neurons in three macaque monkeys of these, 32 neurons showed an activity related to environmental auditory stimuli. Fifteen cells with auditory characteristics (15/32) presented a firing discharge inhibited during the execution of visual fixation. The remaining 107 units presented complex or indefinable behaviour. The presence of auditory environmental cells which activity is related prevalently to the voice of persons (researchers) suggests that area 8B may be an area involved in auditory cross-modal association, in natural behaviour. The inhibitory effects during visual fixation suggest that area 8B is part of the inhibitory network preventing the gaze shift in relation to an auditory stimulus. This may be the consequence of the engagement of attention during fixation that may affect the auditory perception. Both aspects indicate that area 8B is involved in high cognitive processes in auditory and orienting processes.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Bandwidth effects on children's perception of the inflectional morpheme /s/: acoustical measurements, auditory detection, and clarity rating.

The goal of this study was to examine developmental effects in auditory perception of word-final /s/ in inflectional morpheme contexts as a function of high-frequency (HF) bandwidth. Such developmental effects may support the use of hearing aids with extended bandwidths in young children with impaired hearing. The first part of the study consisted of acoustical measurements on word-initial /s/ and inflectional morpheme /s/ in sentences recorded from a male speaker. For this speaker, recordings of inflectional morpheme /s/ on average were approximately 50 ms shorter and about 5 dB lower in level than word-initial /s/ sounds. They also had a lower spectral center of gravity, but not a higher coefficient of kurtosis. The second part consisted of measurements of psychometric functions relating detection of the inflectional morpheme /s/ sounds to HF bandwidth in normally hearing 5-, 7-, and 10-year-old children and adults. In speech-shaped noise, significant main effects of age were found for detection as a function of bandwidth for both the 30- and 10-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) condition, although there was no interaction between age and SNR condition. The third part consisted of subjective clarity rating as a function of HF bandwidth for the same speech stimuli used in the second part. No differences were found between age groups in the shape of the clarity rating functions, but differences were found in the rating variance. No systematic effects of the spectral composition of inflectional morpheme /s/ sounds on either detection or clarity rating were found. The higher detection thresholds and larger clarity rating variances for the youngest participants support the use of extended high-frequency bandwidths for young children with impaired hearing. The extent to which the potential benefit of extended bandwidths is affected by hearing impairment in this population, however, deserves further investigation.

Child↗

Auditory pattern perception in the profoundly hearing impaired and lipreading of Dutch phonemes.

Successful rehabilitation of the profoundly hearing impaired by means of a speech-processing hearing aid requires integration of auditory and visual speech information. In two studies we investigated (1) which perceptual dimensions play a role in processing various auditory patterns by profoundly hearing-impaired subjects, and (2) which Dutch consonants and vowels can be identified by the average lipreader. One of the important cues in auditory pattern discrimination seems to be the presence of temporal fluctuations (beats) in the signal, resulting from two closely placed frequency components. However, this feature is confounded with the perception of loudness. A second cue used by some subjects is the presence of high-frequency peaks. In lipreading, at least three groups of consonants and three vowel groups may be distinguished; phonemes within a group cannot be discriminated from each other. Important features for both consonants and vowels are degree of lip opening and lip activity (movement or rounding). These results suggest how the auditory speech signal might be coded so as to provide supplementary information to speechreading.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Additional information about the central auditory discrimination ability of aphasics.

The differences of sensorimotor (global) and motor aphasias using electrophysiological recordings of cortical regions after different acoustic stimuli are described. For appreciation of the auditory perception ability of patients with aphasia slow auditory evoked potentials were recorded from temporal regions, after stimulation with tone, white noise, and word stimuli. For the global aphasia group (with speech comprehension lesion) normal cortical complexes were not recorded. These results could contribute to the discrimination of the two main types of aphasia (global and motor).

Adult↗

Cochlear implantation in children with Waardenburg syndrome.

Waardenburg syndrome is an autosomal-dominant trait resulting from mutations occurring in different genes. It is often characterized by varying degrees of: congenital hearing loss; dystopia canthorum; synophrys; broad nasal root; depigmentation of hair (white forelock), skin or both; and heterochromic or hypochromic irides. A retrospective case study was done to assess speech perception, speech production, general intelligence and educational setting in six profoundly hearing-impaired children with Waardenburg syndrome (four with type I, one with type II and one with type III) ranging in age from two years to 14 years, seven months (mean = six years, six months). None of the patients had malformation of the cochlea and were implanted using Nucleus 22/24 and Med-el combi40+. Five out of the six cases were of average intelligence and one had a borderline intelligence quotient. The follow-up period ranged from one year, 10 months to six years, six months (mean = three years, six months) after implantation. The evaluation of auditory perception in patients was accomplished using the Persian Auditory Perception Test for the Hearing-Impaired, a Persian Spondee words test and the Categories of Auditory Performance Index. The Speech Intelligibility Rating test was used to evaluate speech production ability. All the patients' speech perception and speech intelligibility capabilities improved considerably after receiving the implants, and they were able to be placed in regular educational settings. Patients used their cochlear-implant devices whenever awake, implying that they benefitted from the devices. We suggest that any further expansion of cochlear-implantation criteria in children include those with Waardenburg syndrome.

Adolescent↗

Tactile-auditory speech perception by unimodally and bimodally trained normal-hearing subjects.

The following study compared the effectiveness of unimodal and bimodal training strategies at improving the perception of speech information under a variety of conditions. Normal-hearing subjects were trained in the perception of vowel and consonant stimuli. Speech information was provided either via a multiple channel electrotactile speech processing aid (the Tickle Talker), and/or by a 200-Hz low-pass filtered auditory signal. Two subjects were trained only in the combined tactile-plus-auditory (TA) condition; the remaining two were trained in both the tactile-alone (T) and auditory-alone (A) conditions; however, only one condition was used at any single time. All subjects were evaluated in the TA, T, and A conditions, both at the beginning of the study, prior to training, and at the completion of training, on closed-set vowel and consonant confusion tests, and on an open-set word test. Results indicated that whilst statistically significant improvements occurred from one evaluation period to the next, in both groups of subjects, the improvements per condition were not dependent on the type of training received. The results provide a preliminary indication that the provision of unimodal training does not impair the perception of speech information under bimodal perception conditions.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Similarities between tactual and auditory speech perception.

Perception of synthetic speech continua through the sense of touch and audition was compared utilizing a 32-channel spectrally oriented electrocutaneous display and standard auditory psychophysical procedures. Results indicated a close correspondence between tactual and auditory discrimination and identification for a vowel (/a/-/e/) and a consonant (/sta/-/sa/) continuum. These results suggest that at least some aspects of speech perception are amodal.

Humans↗

Modulation of theta/alpha frequency profiles of slow auditory-evoked responses in the songbird zebra finch.

Spatiotemporal patterns of forebrain neural activity associated with auditory perception of biologically relevant complex acoustic stimuli can be conveniently studied in the songbird zebra finch. Here we present a time-frequency analysis of averaged slow auditory-evoked potentials (sAEPs) obtained at electrode locations overlying the main song control nucleus, high vocal center. Gabor spectrograms of these sAEPs show a prolonged response time course consisting of unimodal frequency peaks in the theta/alpha range (4-17 Hz). There is a stimulus-dependent modulation of the duration of the response and of the total number of its constituent frequency peaks, an effect that is bilateral in 75% of the birds and lateralized to the left side in the remaining 25%. Since the state of alertness of birds modulates these parameters along a similar continuum, these findings suggest that modulation of sAEP frequency profile may be dependent on attentional mechanisms. The presence and modulation of neurobiologically ubiquitous dominant frequency components also implicate the possible role of induced cerebral neuronal circuit oscillations in songbird auditory perception.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Auditory induction: perceptual synthesis of absent sounds.

Within certain auditory patterns, fainter sounds may be "heard" clearly when replaced by louder sounds having appropriate spectral compositions. This auditory induction of fainter by louder sounds can cancel the perceptual effects of masking. Phonemic restorations, which have been reported previously, appear to be a specialized application to speech of the much broader phenomenon of auditory induction. The rules governing auditory induction indicate that it helps maintain stable auditory perception in our frequently noisy environment.

Auditory Perception↗

Irritable bowel syndrome patients show enhanced modulation of visceral perception by auditory stress.

OBJECTIVES: Symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients are sensitive to psychological stressors. These effects may operate through an enhanced responsiveness of the emotional motor system, a network of brain circuits that modulate arousal, viscerosomatic perception, and autonomic responses associated with emotional responses, including anxiety and anger. The aim of this study was to test the primary hypothesis that IBS patients show altered perceptual responses to rectal balloon distention during experimentally induced psychological stress compared with healthy control subjects. METHODS: A total of 15 IBS patients (nine women and six men) and 14 healthy controls (seven women and seven men) were studied during two laboratory sessions: 1) a mild stress condition (dichotomous listening to two conflicting types of music), and 2) a control condition (relaxing nature sounds). The stress and relaxation auditory stimuli were delivered over a 10-min listening period preceding rectal distentions and during the rectal distentions but not during the distention rating process. Ratings of intensity and unpleasantness of the visceral sensations, subjective emotional responses, heart rate, and neuroendocrine measures (norepinephrine, cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone [ACTH], and prolactin) were obtained during the study. RESULTS: IBS patients, but not healthy controls, rated the 45-mm Hg visceral stimulus significantly higher in terms of intensity and unpleasantness during the stress condition compared with the relaxation condition. IBS patients also reported higher ratings of stress, anger, and anxiety during the stress compared with the relaxing condition, whereas controls had smaller and nonsignificant subjective responses. Heart rate measurements, but not other neuroendocrine stress measures, were increased under the stress condition in both groups. CONCLUSION: These findings confirm the hypothesis of altered stress-induced modulation of visceral perception in IBS patients.

Acoustic Stimulation↗